Remember all those campaign promises about no rise in GST? And how as a nation we could collectively look over some light human rights violations in order to keep prices "as they is." Well, time to sharpen those pitch forks, because Valve and Steam will be implementing GST into sales starting in July. Okay, so it's not exactly the end of the world. And this is something we've been expecting for a while. But still, it's a good time as any to start complaining.
The inclusion of GST for Australian customers will arrive alongside similar measures for other countries including Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, South and Africa. And even though Steam still doesn't have local pricing for its offerings, GST will be factored into the advertised prices.
Posted 03:50pm 22/2/17
Posted 04:30pm 22/2/17
Posted 04:49pm 22/2/17
Posted 05:57pm 22/2/17
However, the issue is that Steam are still charging Australia a lot compared to what the sell the games for overseas. And on top of that, they sell to us in USD so that we get slapped with some s*** conversion as well. A real rip off deal.
Hence, I like NiTrat3, have had very few purchases in recent months. Steam is just too expensive.
In the same period of time, I have bought SWBF season pass, BF1 and then BF1 season pass off Origin...they charge in AUD so no f*****g around and when they had sales I bought everything for about 30% off.
It really depends what you play I guess, but I can't justify dropping $15+ on a random indie game.
Posted 05:59pm 22/2/17
Steam lost it's value as an online retailer for me way back when they started charging $80 US for games because the publishers wanted to rip Aussie consumers off, primarily Activision but it triggered a price rise from most other publishers. At that point it was cheaper to get hard copies delivered from JB hifi, tax and all.
Now there are so many other online options I wonder how many people actually use the Steam store now days. I haven't bought a game off them directly for at least 5 years.
Posted 06:34pm 22/2/17
Posted 06:47pm 22/2/17
Posted 07:10pm 22/2/17
SAD, Just Sad.
Posted 10:05pm 22/2/17
For a while it was a bastion of light for Australian PC gamers
Posted 10:27pm 22/2/17
dude - set your kid up on their own VPN and be done.
I want my children to gift me s***** Steam games on Fathers Day instead of crappy socks.
I don't want to berate them afterwards for wasting money on s***** online purchases.
CREATE the safe space you want for your people as best you can. Everything after that is up to the Govt ;)
Posted 10:37am 23/2/17
You can expect the already-high official Steam prices to increase by 10%, publishers are not going to eat the margins.
You can probably also expect a crackdown on out-of-region key trading at some point.
Posted 11:38am 23/2/17
Posted 10:27pm 23/2/17
This would have the side benefit of f*****g off publishers that persist in the Australia tax. I suspect they'd probably lose more sales (they may have even done the maths on this) but gee, it'd be nice.
Posted 12:26am 24/2/17
Huh, the goods that Steam sell are essentially sold on consignment. Happens all the time in Australian retail, and the supplier sets the price quite legally.
The Steam relationship for buyer <-> store <-> publisher is more like eBay than EB Games.
Posted 04:18pm 24/2/17
Posted 05:36pm 24/2/17
When you buy something on consignment, the contract of sale is usually between you and the person who takes your money (in this case Steam or Valve).
eBay is a flawed example (bash me its fine) because they don't take your money, they just facilitate a transaction between buyer and seller.
This is why Steam is on the hook for statutory warranty and refunds (and GST) but eBay is not.